SEA AND SUN AIRLINES: United States (1984-1985). Controlled by the Netherlands Antilles company Seagrove Holdings, S&S is established at New York in the summer of 1984 to operate international passenger charters, primarily to St. Martin. Four Douglas DC-8-62s are acquired and employed to begin revenue services in October.
The initial season does not go well and the decision is taken to lease half the fleet to the Los Angeles-based company Pacific East Air. With insufficient funding to undertake another winter holiday schedule, the company shuts down before its first birthday.
SEA BEE AIR, LTD.: New Zealand (1955-1991). Sea Bee Air, Ltd. is established at Auckland in 1955 to provide passenger and cargo air charter flights to various destinations on the upper half of the nation’s North Island. Nonscheduled services are maintained for a decade with a Piper Aztec.
When the amphibian division of Mount Cook Airlines, Ltd. is closed down at the end of April 1976, its employees purchase Sea Bee, along with MCA’s Grumman G-21A Goose and three Grumman G-44A Widgeons. One Widgeon is leased to Stewart Island Airways, Ltd. The proceeds of the sale allow Mount Cook to purchase a Hawker Siddeley HS 748 while the transaction provides the basis under which Sea Bee’s 13 employees are able to launch scheduled commuter services in November, at which the Stewart Island lease is ended.
Destinations regularly linked to Mechanics Bay in downtown Auckland include Port Fitzroy, Tryphena, and Whangaparapara on Great Barrier Island, Pakatos Island, and Paihia and Waltangi on the Bay of Islands. In October 1977, a second G-21A joins the fleet.
Two years later, in July 1979, charter flights are inaugurated on behalf of Fiji Air, Ltd. to destinations within the Fiji group. From a base at Funafuti, the company, in March 1980, undertakes three years of non-scheduled services on behalf of the Tuvaluan government to its nine atolls. Charters are also flown to destinations in the Tokelau, Kiribati, Samoa, Nauru, and Cook Island groups.
The Fiji operation ends in July 1981 when the assigned Widgeon returns to Auckland for a refit. In August, a G-21G Turbo Goose replaces the Widgeon employed on the charter service to the Cook and other groups.
Beginning in October 1982, a G-21A based at Fiji begins a two year charter operation to holiday destinations on behalf of Nadi-based Sun Tours. The company’s Turbo Goose becomes the first aircraft to ever land at Rakahanga, Cook Islands, when that destination’s new airport is opened in December. The Fiji flights on behalf of Sun Tours ends on October 27, 1984.
Operations continue apace in 1985-1986; however, the company’s demise appears on the horizon in May 1987 when fast boat services from Auckland to Waiheke Island and Great Barrier Island, slower but 50% as expensive, steal large numbers of the 45,000 annual passenger average. By the end of August, Sea Bee must discontinue its flights to Waiheke Island.
In 1989, Sea Bee is transformed into a holding company for a new subsidiary, Great Barrier Airlines, Ltd., which operates a Grumman G-21A from Auckland to the namesake island. In August 1991, this service is ended as Sea Bee and Great Barrier, during a time of high recession, close down and sell their Goose to a new American owner.
World History
